Pictures I'm proud of

[Zachary]

These are some of the pics I'm particularly proud of. I have more, I'll post 5/week or so , I think they're good but they can probably be improved upon, tips & suggestions are welcomed
My camera is a Sony Cybershot DSCW80, just a simple point & shoot

1st: Chicago's Millennium Park at Christmas
2nd: San Antonio's Rivercenter Mall on the Riverwalk
3rd: A road near my old house, I took this walking home one evening
4th: Seagulls on a boat tour at the gulf coast
5th: My old bedroom fan with a distinct shadow

[GB1]

Welcome to the Forum, Zachary. Your shots are pretty diverse. I see you have an eye for artistic shapes and scenes (and color). I think they show good insight - the Chicago some great light, the sunset, the gulls... the fan's shadow is fun, too. I like shooting models with shadows myself when I get the chance.

As you shoot more you will get better, but one thing to study is the technical aspects of photography. The shutter speed will directly affect how sharp your shots are, not only with moving subjects but whether you can hand hold your camera without camera shake (slight movements of your hand as you hold it). Using a faster ISO setting and corresponding shutter speed is one sure fire way of solving this in the near term. Another major concept is aperture, which controls depth of field. These are core concepts that you have to play around with and control, though many starting up on photography use the Program setting initially (after you have been in it for awhile you will probably switch to another setting and never use Program again ).

Let us know if you have any questions on the above info! In the meanwhile, keep posting... and again, welcome.

G

[Zachary]

Thanks for the info! My camera has a variety of settings, I usually leave it on auto and just mess with the ISO and Light settings to get what I want though, most of the time during the day I just leave it on the standard settings, but overall I think the results are pretty good.
Editing my pictures is something I haven't really done except for cropping/resizing, other than editing people out of my shots. My family makes fun of me because I absolutely HATE taking pictures of people

[Frog]

People aren't bad if they don't know you're taking their pic.
Your compositions are pretty good.
Watch out for clipping things like ends of fan blades or bird wings.
If you have an editing program that you can clone with, you can clone out the very top gull's wing and tail, as if it wasn't there and your image will be cleaner.

[Canyon Hiker]

Welcome to the boards Zack. Nice job on your pictures. There are a couple easy steps you can take if you want to make these even better. I adjusted the white balance, correct the perspective and adjusted the levels, and removed the noise in the example below. 4 easy steps in most photo editing programs. There are some free programs like Freestone that you can use if you don't want to invest the money in an expensive program like photoshop. You have a great eye so keep up the great work. I look forward to your upcoming posts.